Student's Extradition Approved By Home Sec

The Home Secretary has authorised the extradition of a student accused of infringing copyright laws by advertising on his website.

Sheffield Hallam University undergraduate Richard O'Dwyer, 23, allegedly earned thousands of pounds through the TVShack site before it was closed down by authorities in the United States.

On Tuesday Theresa May signed an order allowing him to be extradited, two months after a district judge said the allegations justified a trial in the US.

The ruling follows a series of high-profile extradition cases, the latest of which saw retired British businessman Christopher Tappin, 65, of Orpington, Kent, extradited to the US last month to spend 23 hours a day alone in his cell awaiting trial over arms dealing charges.

And Asperger's sufferer Gary McKinnon is still waiting for Mrs May's decision 10 years after the US first asked for him to be extradited over charges he allegedly hacked into military computers in 2002.

O'Dwyer faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the allegations, which were brought following a crackdown by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

His lawyer, Ben Cooper, has argued that the site did not store copyright material itself and merely pointed users to other sites, in the same way that Google and Yahoo operate.

Mr Cooper also said his client would be the first British citizen to be extradited for such an offence and would effectively become a "guinea pig" for copyright law in the US.

A Home Office spokesman told Sky News Online O'Dwyer's case was "sent to the Secretary of State on 13 January 2012 after the court found there were no statutory bars to his surrender under the Extradition Act 2003".

"Mr O'Dwyer's legal team challenged extradition on three grounds; dual criminality, the passage of time since the alleged offences were committed and that extradition would breach his human rights. The district judge rejected all challenges to the extradition request.

"The district judge found the allegations were comparable to an offence under UK law and it was appropriate for any trial to be held in the US."

Responding to the decision, the student's mother Julia said he was being "sold down the river".

"Richard's life - his studies, work opportunities, financial security - is being disrupted, for who knows how long, because the UK Government has not introduced the much needed changes to the extradition law," she said.

Mrs O'Dwyer said the so-called Natwest Three "were right when they said if it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone".

Mrs O'Dwyer was referring to bankers Gary Mulgrew, Giles Darby and David Bermingham who fought and lost a four-year battle against extradition to the US over allegations of conspiring with former Enron executives to dupe the bank out of \$20m (£12.7m).

The men later admitted one charge of wire fraud and were sentenced to 37 months in jail.

Mrs O'Dwyer went on: "The US is coming for the young (Richard), the old (Chris Tappin) and the ill (Gary McKinnon) and our Government is paving the way.

"By rights, it should make for an interesting conversation between the Obamas and Camerons aboard Air Force One - but I'm not holding my breath.

"If Richard appears to have committed a crime in this country - then try him in this country.

"Instead the Home Secretary wants to send him thousands of miles away and leave him languishing, just like Chris Tappin, in a US jail, before he has a chance to demonstrate his innocence, under British law, of the allegations made against him."

The US authorities allege that the student received more than \$230,000 (£147,000) in advertising revenue between January 2008 and 2010, when the site was shut down.

Critics, including Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and many MPs, have argued the existing treaty between the UK and the US is "one-sided" and must be changed.

But an independent review by retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Scott Baker last year found it was both balanced and fair.

O'Dwyer could now appeal to the High Court, and then to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, to block the extradition.